Body composition images on 6,000 participants now available for research

Jan 31, 2018

The latest range of 6,000 detailed 3D images of body fat and muscle are available to health researchers from UK Biobank.

The extensive body composition pictures are now available for researchers to use in a wide range of studies tackling prevention, diagnosis and treatment of disease.

This first tranche of unique data – with thousands more to come as UK Biobank aims to scan 100,000 of its half a million volunteer participants – will provide important insights into a wide range of disorders, including obesity and other fat-related illnesses. The automated insights have far-reaching consequences for drug development, novel R&D programmes and clinical practice.

The pictures have been created by the Swedish company AMRA which was the first in the world to transform images from a rapid, 6-minute whole body MRI scan into precise, 3D-volumetric fat and muscle measurements.

They provide an exciting glimpse of the different ways in which fat and muscle are distributed around the human body – and those differences may have significant implications for disorders like heart, live and kidney disease and obesity.

The images are part of the first 15,000 imaging datasets that are now available across all imaging modalities.

Thousands of UK Biobank participants are contributing to its MRI imaging study. The goal is to scan 100,000 participants, providing the largest set of research ready images of the abdomen, bones, brains and hearts. This fantastic resource is already contributing to health research. Not only is it unique in detail, but it is linked to a wide range of other health, lifestyle and genetics information provided by participants to improve health.

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